Psychogeography in Planning: A New Methodological Approach via Representations of ‘Body’, ‘Urban Space’ and ‘Walking’

Abstract

Pattern of urban space penetrates the minds and bodies of citizens; this penetration results in a two-folded map: physical and psychogeographic maps. Mental representations enable (re)-reading the invisible components of physical organization through spatial practice. Re-mapping such an authentic spatial knowledge is a crucial but neglected field of enquiry within planning to grasp the gap between ‘what is conceived’ and ‘what is experienced’. ‘Psychogeography’ concentrates on how the environment influences individuals’ feelings and attitudes and therefore –at the intersection of geography and psychology– it presents an epistemological basis to examine such a gap and offers methodological inputs to cover the interrelation among top-down designs of urban space and bottom-up reproductions of ‘the soul’ of the city. Within this context, the main question of the study is “how the representations of walking experience can be used within planning with reference to the two-folded map assumption”. During this examination, theoretical and methodological readings on psychogeography led us to an epistemological baseline, as an initial step to construct a new spatial methodology of the ‘body’ and ‘walking experience’. The studyk is composed of three sub-sections. Firstly, the gap between ‘physical’ and ‘psychological’ maps is conceptualized. Secondly, the concept of psychogeography is defined as a source and method of spatial knowledge within its deficiencies and potentials. Lastly, the term, Dérive, implying ‘deviation’ and ‘resistance’, is discussed as a methodological path in grasping the gap between physical and psychological maps via the experience of body and conception of the designer.